[Castle of friendship, 8:00 pm]
We go into nighttime in Equestria as ponies everywhere were about to get some shut eye. Ponyville was looking good with all of the repairs everywhere as some civilians were told to bunk with friends or inside tents for the night. It was not until Twilight came running around in her castle in locating the room that Tails was bunking at. Most of her friends probably left too, as only Spike and Starlight were in their separate rooms too. She came in front of Tails' door and opened it wide open with her magic.
"Did you manage to get..." she asked before stopping to look at the unusual pieces of equipment and various gadgets surrounding the room.
Not only a few seconds made the gang inside notice Twilights voice. Tails were the first one to greet her back, "Oh hey Twilight! We've got everything that we need for our base of operations; My handy chaos emerald tracking devices, some extra tools and parts, my entire supercomputer set up on the desk, a few gadgets in that red box their, and this chaos energy to voltage converter that's powered by the two chaos emeralds we have,"
"This stuff is pretty impressive Tails," Twilight peaked her head at different directions in the room, "You made all of this out of your mind?"
"Yep," he answered back with no hesitations, "Unfortunately, Sonic had to waste the projector lens' battery life just to get his fridge full of food,"
"Hey!" Sonic called out, right next to an open fridge at the corner of the room, "I managed to get the microwave too!"
"What do you expect to do when you run out of frozen Chili dogs?" Knuckles roughly questioned him.
"The portal can be opened indefinitely with the chaos emerald, but, if I don't find a good cooling solution, the whole thing could fry up," The fox answered back to her.
"Not the importance!" The princess silences the room, "We need to locate where Rainbow Dash is remembered?"
"We know! We know!" Knuckles shouted crossing his shoulders, "We'll have her back here by a few weeks tops!"
Twilight's jaw soon dropped as she heard Knuckles' estimate time it takes to rescue Dashie "But, you said 30 minutes!"
"Yes, I know! I'm still in the midst of setting up equipment here!" Tails started a counter-argument to Twilight, "Plus, It's been a while since I've tracked down Eggman's carrier. He probably has a better incognito tech on him. It's going to take a while if we actually want to pinpoint him down."
"Don't you worry about everything Princess!" Sonic's muffled voice was heard from his chewing of his chili dog, "We promise to get Rainbow Dash back, all in one piece! We do this literally every time he captures hostages."
Twilight looked liked she was about to counter argue that, but then she slowly brushed away, accepting defeat
"Okay then..." she finally stopped her panic fest and slowly began to tone down, "It's just that, I don't have anyone to fill in for Rainbow Dash's class for the week,"
"Umm...excuse me...did you say, class?" Amy, who was sitting on a mattress for Tails, randomly asked out of the blue.
"I forgot to mention, I and my friends are teachers in The School of Friendship," Twilight explained her role, "We teach kids and others outside of Equestria the meanings of friendship, and together we'll make a better future where everyone can make friends! And I'm the head mare of it all!"
"Uhh, a school that teaches friendship?" Tails scratched his head around that whole concept in his mind, "T-that's not a real curriculum to teach to anyone..."
"I mean, of course, we're not about learning math or anything that's educational for them mind, but as in stuff that makes creatures better friends!" Twilight happily answered back to him, "How could you missed the huge building right next to my castle?"
"Woah really? that was a school?" gasped Sonic, "I thought that was part of the castle,"
"Well, I guess that's fine..." Tails shrugged over the whole idea still and proceeded onto typing away on his keyboard
"I guess I'll just cancel all classes until she gets rescued, In the meantime...have anyone of you situated your sleeping arrangements?"
"Pinkie Pie said she could let me sleep at her house!" Amy was the first one to answer her.
"Me and Silver are already staying at Aj's!" Knuckles announced his plans, "Shadow barely sleeps, so he's fine watching the castle at night."
"Good, and as for Sonic, I have another spare room just across from Tails' room!"
"Cool!" Sonic placed a thumbs up at her, taking the last bit of his food, "Really good hospitality you have here your majesty!"
"Oh please! just call me Twilight from now on," Twilight quickly giggled at Sonic's gesture, "Anyways I guess It's goodnight then? "
The Princess left the room, leaving the four in the room, waiting for them to leave one by one. Knuckles and Amy both said their goodnights and walked away to the hallways. Sonic stayed for a bit while standing next to his pal still on his PC.
"Wow Tails' I can't believe you really did it," Sonic casually grinned right next to him, without Tails' knowledge of it.
"I know, traveling to another new world is really a great discovery for me..." Tails slowly smiled at his compliment.
"Not that! I mean taking credit onto finding Twilight's crown even though I first saw it!" corrected the hedgehog.
"Sorry about that...I just didn't know what I did back there," He graciously chuckled, scratching the side of his head.
Sonic placed his left hand straight to his left shoulder, making him jump a bit as he carefully lifts away from his fingers on his keyboard
"Oh, I know what you did, say that you found the crown an and receive a hug from Twilight right before she finished your science about dimensional travel." the hedgehog began to lay out the facts, "All of those facts have come to my theory that you've started to...have your eyes on her..."
"Come again?"
"Still too early to come to a conclusion buddy...let's see how tomorrow fares for you and Twilight!" He mysteriously zipped away in plain sight, leaving a dumbfounded Tails in his seat.
"What was that about?" Tails brushed off on Sonics strange words he left in his head, trying to figure out what was he talking about.
He proceeded onto staying in his workspace, still typing away tons of code and programs into his bright monitor. Time passes, and he continues to work the night away.
Morning arises, as most of the gang have awoken from their slumber. Knuckles and Silver specifically, as the sleeper on the couches at the Apple ranch. Knuckles, still wrapped in an apple patterned blanket, stretched his arms and legs. While adjusting his eyes from the dark, he got up on his two feet.
"Morning Silver!" he greeted his roommate, still lying in bed.
After that, Silver got up from his couch and did the usual routine, "H-hey! Knuckles. Any signs of chaos energy?"
"Not yet..." Knuckles shook his head, answering him truthfully, "Let's see if Applejack is up, I'm starving!"
The two friends slowly got up from their couches and walked straight to the left, seeing three ponies in what it looks to be the kitchen. Two of them they know well; Applejack and Big Mac. But another one that looked to be a kid, all sitting on a chair with a large table of food.
Applejack turned her face straight to Silver and Knuckles, greeting them accordingly, "Mornin' fellas! we were just starting breakfast! you wanna try some of our finest Apple flapjacks?"
"Of course," Knuckles carefully walked over to a chair next to Aj herself, scooting over to make room for the red echidna. As Knuckles seated himself, he noticed the small pony that stared down on him without making a sound. He tried to figure out the pony's identity, "Who's this across from me?"
"Oh, I forgot! Apple Bloom, I want you to meet Knuckles here! and his friend Silver!" Aj moved her hoof to greet her little sister to the two, "Knuckles, this is my littl' sis, Apple Bloom."
"Well hello, their!" smiled back the red echidna, grabbing three stacks of flapjacks on the center table and on his plate.
"Umm...hey their mister...I saw you and your friends fighting off those creatures at Ponyville yesterday," She calmly spoken up to him.
"Don't you ever worry about them. If they show up again, I'll take care of it!" he promised back at her. In just in half an hour, Knuckles was just taking the last bite of his food. Silver too was just sitting at the head of the table, grabbing the last Apple muffin on the plate. After minutes of storytelling, they finished on with a friendly gesture of doing the dishes for them.
"That was some amazing pancakes, Apple Jack!" Silver gave compliments to the chef, levitating some clean dishes coming from the sink.
"Yeah, I never ate that well in...forever," Knuckles rubbed his belly full of the delicious pancakes they had,"
"Aww shucks, no need for this kinda affection boys," Aj soon flustered up.
"Anyways, I think I'll head back to town, check out a few things," Knuckles got up from his seat and went for a glass of water from the sink.
"Wow Knux, I can't believe you're this calm even after away from Master Emerald," SIlver pointed out to him.
"It's fine, I'm having Rouge taking care of guarding it," Knuckles told Silver.
"Wow, you're totally fine getting the most notorious jewel theft guarding Master Emerald?" Silver claimed out.
"Well, she did owe me with this one favor of mine!" the confident looking Echidna said out loud
"Now, you've said somethin' about going to town?" Aj butted in their conversation, "I have to go to work harvesting some Apples, if you want to you could help us on it?"
"Maybe next time? I wanted to search around Ponyville for the next chaos emeralds while I'm there," pleaded the redhead, "I promise, we'll help out when the times right!"
Applejack graciously smiled back as she walked out the door to work on the apple harvest, alongside her big brother Big Mac and Apple Bloom.
Meanwhile with Twilight and Starlight, doing some work in the library while munching on some breakfast muffins baked by Spike, were grading some tests from the students at the school of friendship. Shadow was leaning on a bookcase, pondering in his mind he watched from a distance. Levitating a quill and page in each space, Starlight decided to break their silence by striking up a conversation.
"I can't believe how so much happened yesterday. With all the talk about different dimensions and magically gems," she quickly giggled of the thought, "And I could not believe that there's someone faster than Dashie!"
"Well...Sonic is sure fast, and his friend Tails is certainly the smartest I've ever met," Twilight replied to Starlight in return, "I really hope that I can see the power of those Chaos Emeralds!"
"Not on my watch princess!"
Suddenly, the speedy fast hedgehog zipped into the library, holding a muffin in his left hand and tossing it repeatedly, interrupted their chat, "The chaos emeralds are extremely powerful, and dangerous if it isn't used correctly,"
"Good morning to you Sonic," the princess greeted the blue hedgehog, "Where's Tails?"
"I'm here..."
Another voice came out the door, with Tails on the other side of it. He was holding up one of his Chaos energy tracker, and his Miles Electic on the other hand, with his eyes looking fatigue and being groggy in general. He slowly flew with his two tails next to an extra chair just perpendicular to twilight and Starlights direction, still keeping his eyes open.
"Oh no! Tails! are you alright?" Twilight noticed his friend in terrible condition and teleported to his aid, "You've been all night working on your gadgets?"
"Y-y-yeah," Tails yawned in the middle of his sentence, trying to talk to the princess, "I was trying to get my trackers to work in this world...when I finally worked it out...I attempted to search for Rainbow Dash..."
Tails, looking quite tired and weak, made Twilight to quickly stared at his devices. Specifically at the one to locate the chaos emeralds location, While keeping him up.
"So this thing can locate a chaos emerald?" she questioned in curiosity
"Not really...it detects the Chaos energy in the world, and blinks depending on the location of a new emerald...it has yet to actually give out a specific location" the fox answered back at her, seconds before face-planting on the hard table.
"Is Tails gonna be okay?" Starlight felt a bit worried about the little fox
"So typical of Tails!" Sonic shrugged off the whole ordeal, "He usually spends the night working on stuff, barely has any time to sleep"
"He's even worse than me when I work too hard on something!" Twilight quickly levitated the little guy, still knocked out from exhaustion, "I'll place him to bed while Starlight, I need you to do to a task."
"A task?" Starlight put a hoof at her.
"I need you to take Sonic to Canterlot, I promised Princess Celestia and Luna to meet with him and talk about the whole Eggman situation," she laid out her plans, "Well actually, they called for all of his friends, but I didn't want to bother them this morning, but I'm sure Sonic is more than enough representation!"
"Oh, well...alright then," Sonic quickly agreed to her last-minute decision making, "Twilight, you keep Tails company, Shadow, take that emerald tracker and see if you can detect chaos energy signals close to Ponyville, and I'll wait for Starlight at the train station! see ya!"
Sonic, now officially gone from the library, left Twilight, Starlight, and Tails all alone together, still with the small fox.
"Well, I guess I should be heading off then?" Starlight confirmed her plan with the princess.
"It's okay, I got this grading stuff under control!" Twilight answered back at her, keeping a smile on her face.
And with that, Starlight left for the train station, while keeping some of her gradings on the table. Shadow got to work and started to grab the device of the table only to leave in a pinch. Tails, still snoring in thin air, as Twilight still kept in airborne with her magic. WIthout making any noise, she slowly trotted back to his room in hopes of tucking him in a proper bed.
We go into the castle inside Canterlot, where we see Starlight escorting Sonic to the chambers holding the two sisters. Sonic, laying his head on his two arms behind his head, casually walking as slow as he can.
"Oh come on, I can't be walking all day!" wined the blue hedgehog, trying to power walk past Starlight.
She lit her horn up and carefully lifted Sonic on the ground, placing him behind her.
"Look, you're about to meet the two most important ponies of all of Equestria, show a little respect will ya?"
"Oh please, I've met a princess and two back in my world," Sonic laid out a counter-argument, "Which I WON'T speak out about you're welcome!"
"What?" she squinted her eyes, keeping a confused facial expression.
She noticed the doors connecting to the hallway of the sister's throne room to the left, where she signaled the hedgehog to turn accordingly. While Starlight stayed behind, Sonic simply dashed towards the other side of the room, seeing Princess Celestia and Luna both with a shocking expression.
"Ahem! your majesty!" a formal greeting and bow came from the blue hedgehog as he spoke to them as royalty would treat them, "I Sonic of planet Earth will gladly be of any service in the protection of Equestria!"
Celestia raised her left hoof in response to Sonic's formal greeting, "P-please, no formalities for us, thank you very much. I am Princess Celestia, and this is my younger sister Princess Luna. We just wanted to speak to you about you and yourself and what type of threat we're dealing with,"
Sonic suddenly stood up from his knee and started to bring back to his serious attitude, "I understand,"
The whole meeting nearly took an hour of Sonic telling them everything they needed to know; How powerful the Chaos Emeralds are, how they needed no pony to ever find out about them, and also more about his friends. Just after Sonic wrapped up his meeting with a concluding statement
"I guarantee you that your subjects and other pony kinds will be safe from harm as long as I and my friends are around. Eggman will stop at nothing to get the things he wants!"
"We kindly understand your promise of the safety in our people, but...what are Eggman's motives for his doing?" Luna stepped into the conversation in the hope of getting an answer.
"What he wants?" Sonic slowly turned his face away from her, "Simply put, he wants to shape the world into his own empire,"
"This is terrible indeed, and I've heard from Twilight that he's a criminal mastermind?" Celestia confirmed with the hedgehog.
"Oh yeah, he isn't some random Joe who wants to take over the world. He captures tiny animals and puts them into his robots, brainwashing them in the act of taking conquest of a territory," he answered back once more, "I'm surprised his new robots don't have them for all I know,"
"Truly a sinister foe indeed!" Celestia, still keeping her anxiety of this new found foe, "It seems that Equestria has met its terrible threat for a while. Sonic, are you sure you are able to handle him?"
"Oh please! I've dealt with him for years! this is just like another Friday for me! plus, when we find and gather all seven chaos emeralds, we'll certainly have the advantage," once again, Sonic guarantees a victory over Eggman, "My buddy Tails has already made these tracking devices to find them!"
Luna and Celestia both lightened up as the two nodded in unison.
"Very well, we're counting on you and your friends to locate these chaos emeralds and stop Eggman! You are in the hooves of Twilight and her friends as well. You can join together and find these emeralds together," Celestia has stated, "If you need anything from us, just write us a letter,"
"I won't let you down!" and with that, Sonic zipped away in plain sight, without any warnings about anything as he even left Starlight behind.
"O-O-Okay! I'll just catch the next train the Ponyville!" Starlight shouted at the distance from where Sonic ran towards, galloping herself on the way.
[Tails' room]
It would seem that Tails was already wrapped in his bed, sleeping peacefully as he regained his energy that he wasted on reworking his device. Just about a few hours in, he slowly awoke from slumber, checking his surroundings as he noticed the princess coming inside with a muffin and a glass of milk.
"Morning sleepy head! even though it's 10:30 am..." Twilight greeted him late in the day, placing down the tray next to his nightstand.
"Twilight? you're getting me breakfast in bed?" Tails noticed the tray she placed down while pointing it out with his finger.
"Well yes! you overworked yourself all night, and I can't let a friend suffer the same as me," she stated out a good reason, "You remind me very much like me when I was reading books!"
"Oh really?" Tails slightly put up a smirk, "You're a bookworm too?"
"Yes! I love books! they're quite an amazement when you have nothing to do!" she was putting a great big smile from Tails question, "What books are you into? I might have some in the library,"
Tails thought up of books he enjoys reading, "Uhh, Well mostly anything to do scientific and math-related topics,"
"Ohh, I love science and math! they're so fun and entertaining for the brain," she proceeded to nerd out onto the subject, "Now that you're feeling better with a nap, how about we do some reading together?"
Tails heart suddenly beaten twice as hard the moment Twilight suggested to do some reading together; all within a faint blush on his cheeks.
"I guess I can do some reading alongside my work..." is all he could answer, keeping a big poker face straight to her.
[Strange prison cell...]
Inside the Egg Carrier was a small facility housing the jail cells of multiple little creatures, and one of those creatures is Rainbow Dash as well, locked up in a cell just in a corner. inside Rainbow's cells, she was now sitting on top of a metallic bed frame, where the matters itself was a thin sheet of the soft futon. Sighing in boredom, she mumbled to herself to pass the time
"Sonic's right about Eggman, every single thing about him!" she crossed her two hooves together, lying down on the bed, "When I get outta here, they're gonna ge-"
She was interrupted by a familiar looking face walking to her cell, making smirks all around. Eggman...
"Why? if it isn't Rainbow Dash," a sudden voice clearly made Dashie recognize the voice, "How's my little prisoner doing?"
"Not fine!" Dashie scolded straight to him, "You put me in here! what are you gonna do? disect my brains?"
"No no! I won't do any such thing to you!" Eggman slowly leaned on one of the bars of the door on her cell with his left hand, "I'm here to give you a second chance; Team up with me, and I'll grant you your freedom or refuse and rot in here with little to no food!"
"I will never turn against my friends or hurt anypony!" Rainbow Dash soon answered his proposition.
Eggman quickly grinned and proceeded on, "Let me rephrase that!"
The split-second Eggman froze while he grabbed out a little remote control, pushing the red button on top of it. This made Rainbow have a sharp pain inside her head for a second as she adjusted herself to be as stiff as a statue standing like a lifeless object.
The Doctor slowly spoke out, "Are you ready to begin training?"
Rainbow Dash's voice and tone spoke out, keeping her same attitude and tone as her usual self, "Ready when you are...sir!"
"Hehe, looks like my mind chip is working with flying colors..." The Doctor made a devious laugh in the face of his successful invention, "Too bad she has the only one implanted with it. Why can't there be more neuron technology invented in this world...oh well!"
Eggman proceeded to open her cell, making the lifeless Rainbow Dash follow him onto a hallway, presumably the testing room.
"Get ready Equestria..." Eggman speaks to himself, "You've just lost your fastest flyer to me!"